Who we are
Our wonderful team of staff and volunteers
Meet our people
Our team of staff and volunteers at Downing Place URC
Pastoral Vacancy
Following the retirement of our minister, the Reverend Nigel Uden, in July 2025, Downing Place URC is now in pastoral vacancy. During this time the leadership team comprises of the Officers & Elders of the church. To contact them please email secretary@downingplaceurc.org
Here to help
Downing Place has a friendly team of staff and volunteers who between them look after all aspects of running the Church and the buildings. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions or if we can be of any assistance.
Lunchtime Concert Series
If you are a performer who would like to contact us about the possibility of being part of our Lunchtime Concert Series, please email concerts@downingplaceurc.org – thankyou.
Pippa Jones
Church Secretary
Mark Dawes
Director of Music
Elza de Bruin Lara
Children’s Ministry
Jess Uden
Church Coordinator
Alison Binney
Open Table Co-ordinator
Matthew Barker
Alison Binney teaches English in a secondary school and on the PGCE English course at the University of Cambridge. She is an elder at Downing Place URC and co-founded Open Table Cambridge, our community for LGBTQ+ people and their allies, which meets twice a month for worship and discussion. In her spare time she enjoys reading, writing poetry and walking.
Mark Dawes teaches mathematics at Comberton Village College. As a teenager he was organ scholar at Great St Mary’s Church (where he was taught by Christopher Moore) and then read mathematics at Oxford while the organ scholar at Balliol College. After a stint as organist at Trumpington Church Mark became the organist at Emmanuel URC on Easter Sunday 2004. He now shares the position of Director of Music at Downing Place URC with Ian de Massini.
Jess serves as Church Coordinator at Downing Place URC, working closely with her colleagues and members of the congregation to support the overall running of the church. She oversees and coordinates its day-to-day life and activities, aiming to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and helps coordinate the care and use of the building while nurturing a welcoming environment where everyone feels safe and valued.
Greta is key in the day to day running of the Office; she especially collaborates with church members and hirers to enable the bookings and events side of our community to run as smoothly as possible.
Address
Downing Street,
Cambridge
CB2 3EL
Registered Charity Number
1131462
Downing Place URC
Downing Place is a community of people who seek to take God seriously through worship, study and service that are responses to the living, dying and rising of Jesus Christ and rooted in his teaching.
